Oakland Resident Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison For Methamphetamine Trafficking

OAKLAND – Marco Antonio Ochoa, aka Alfredo Ochoa Valladares, was sentenced today to 132 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine announced United States Attorney Brian J. Stretch and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent in Charge John J. Martin.  The sentence follows a guilty plea entered January 30, 2017, in which Ochoa admitted he participated in the conspiracy.

According to his plea agreement, Ochoa, 38, of Oakland, acknowledged that he conspired to possess with the intent to distribute no less than 6,334 net grams of methamphetamine.  Specifically, Ochoa admitted that on May 23, 2013, he received instructions from his co-conspirators to travel to Los Angeles so that he could retrieve methamphetamine and payment for his distribution services.  He made the trip on May 24, 2013, and received from a co-conspirator 20 pounds (or at least 9 kgs) of methamphetamine and the payment for his services.  Ochoa drove back to Oakland and on the next day, he received further instructions to distribute the methamphetamine.  Ochoa ultimately provided a co-conspirator with at least 6,334 net grams of the methamphetamine.  Further, Ochoa admitted that on September 19, 2013, he traveled to Whittier, Calif., and met with a co-conspirator at a car wash where he retrieved another 20 pounds of methamphetamine for distribution.

In addition to the methamphetamine, Ochoa also admitted possessing with the intent to distribute approximately 2 kilograms of heroin.  In June 2014, he received instructions to travel to Fresno where he could retrieve heroin from a co-conspirator.  On June 20, 2014, Ochoa traveled to Fresno and retrieved 2,774 net grams of heroin.  While driving back to Oakland, he was stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer; the officer searched Ochoa’s car and recovered multiple Ziploc bags that contained the heroin.  As part of his plea agreement, Ochoa admitted he possessed the heroin with the intention of selling it.

A federal grand jury indicted Ochoa on January 16, 2014, and charged him with one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1).  Pursuant to his plea agreement, Ochoa pleaded guilty to the charge.

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Edward J. Davila, U.S. District

Judge.  In addition to the prison term, Judge Davila sentenced Ochoa to a 5-year period of supervised release.  Ochoa has been in custody since his arrest in June of 2014 and will begin serving his sentence immediately.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Backhus is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Ryka Barghi and Ana Guerra.  This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a focused multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force investigating and prosecuting the most significant drug trafficking organizations throughout the United States by leveraging the combined expertise of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.